During a panel promoting Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law at Summer 2022 TCA, the show’s star Tatiana Maslany, director and executive producer Kat Coiro, and head writer and executive producer Jessica Gao responded to both criticism of the Marvel show’s VFX and the recent rumors that Marvel has a turbulent relationship with the VFX houses they employ. When Decider asked the panel about recent reports of VFX artists feeling overworked by the studio pipeline crunch, everyone spoke out in “solidarity” with the artists and bemoaned the working conditions.
Ever since Marvel dropped the first teasers for its upcoming series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, fans have been less than enthusiastic about the show’s CGI. While She-Hulk director and executive producer Kat Coiro responded to the criticism last month, telling SFX magazine, “I think a lot of the reactions have to do with the fact that she is so different than anything we’ve seen,” Marvel’s relationship with VFX house has come under further scrutiny in recent weeks. Vulture cited a VFX artist who said they and their colleagues were being “pixel-fucked” by Marvel.
“I was working seven days a week, averaging 64 hours a week on a good week. Marvel genuinely works you really hard. I’ve had co-workers sit next to me, break down, and start crying. I’ve had people having anxiety attacks on the phone,” the VFX artist, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
Defector recently published an in-depth report from Drew Margary about how this crisis within VFX houses is on the verge of meltdown, with Marvel once again being called out as being a particularly frustrating client.
“I feel incredibly deferential to how talented these artists are and how quickly they have to work, much quicker than should be given to them, in terms of churning these things out,” Maslany said. “I know there’s a lot of eyes on the CG and a lot of critique or whatever, but I do think that we have to be super conscious of how the working conditions aren’t alway optimal and they’ve made these amazing strides in this industry. Where I watch it and I see thoughts as opposed to a cut scene from a video game. I can see the person’s thoughts and I feel very in awe of what they do. And very grateful we’re at the point where we can work with these amazing artists.”
Kat Coiro said, “And we stand in solidarity with what they say. The truth is we work with them, but we’re not behind-the-scenes on these long nights and days. So if they’re feeling pressure, we stand with them and we listen to them.”
“This is just a massive undertaking. To have a show of this scale where the main character is CG, it’s very a overwhelming and ginormous thing to take on and it’s terrible that a lot of artists feel rushed and feel that the workload is too massive,” Jessica Gao said. “I think everybody on this panel stands in solidarity with all workers and is very pro good working conditions.”
“And pro union!” Maslany said.
Marvel’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law premieres on Disney+ on August 18, 2022, with new episodes premiering on Thursdays.
The post ‘She-Hulk’ Star, EPs “Stand in Solidarity” With Over-Worked Marvel VFX Artists appeared first on Decider.
